Sunday, November 8, 2009

Homemaker Monday: Don't Cry Over Spilled Molasses

Welcome to the 66th weekly edition of...

Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Alessandra over at Random Tips! Alessandra is one of my most faithful blog commentators and she always makes my day with her wit and charm. Therefore, I am honored to feature her for her recipe for Apple Puree. This is no ordinary puree, though. Her recipe has a secret ingredient, one you can only discover by visiting Alessandra's blog post, but here is the photo...

I am getting hungry just looking on this, but then again, I'm pregnant and always hungry.

Thank you, Alessandra, for your contribution to Homemaker Monday. I look forward to many more visits from you and more "random tips"! For Alessandra's recipe, click HERE. And Alessandra, please feel free to take the "I Was Featured" button from my left sidebar. Thank you!

MINE: Not all of my Homemaker Monday tips will be inspiring and instructive. Some tips will be inspiration of what NOT to do. The following is one of those tips.

Sometimes I like to answer nature's call all by myself...alone...without three little boys leaning on my thighs, unrolling the toilet paper roll, swinging the plunger around, or rubbing the toilet brush on my flip flops. Sometimes I sneak into the bathroom while the 3 three and under are distracted with making messes in some other part of the house, messes which usually only require a little bending over to clean up.

Thursday morning was different. Thursday morning I decided to sneak into the bathroom alone, while the 3 three and under were watching Finding Nemo. I guess Twin A had watched Finding Nemo one too many times, however, and was not distracted in the least. What did catch his attention was the child-proof cabinet lock that had not been replaced after the kids had opened it two hours earlier during the breakfast rush.

Twin A opened the cabinet, and was attracted to a clear, dark brown pail of the stickiest liquid on the face of the planet...a quart and a half of our year's supply of molasses. This is what I encountered after my pleasant stay in the bathroom alone...

The best part is that Twin A had not only poured out the entire pail of molasses, but had also walked through it...

Cleaning Twin A was the easy part...

Cleaning the molasses was not. Do you have any idea how one would clean up mess up such as this? Neither did I. I was out of paper towels, so I grabbed as many dishrags as I could and scooped up as much molasses as would fit into my rag-covered hands, then tried to squeeze this out into a bowl by my knees. Rags do not really absorb molasses. Nothing does. Even so, I rinsed the rags and did this over and over again, while trying to comfort crying Twin A, who was still disturbed about his sticky situation, and trying to discourage Twin B from walking through the molasses as well.

What was the silver lining of such an experience (for my father always taught me that every negative event has attached to it a blessing in disguise)? After the clean up, the grout between our slate tile pieces had a lovely rich brown hue to it.

And for the record, Twin A soon felt much better...

(He is depicted here eating roasted seaweed from the sushi I later prepared for lunch. Incidentally, I will show you how to do this tomorrow, or maybe Friday. We'll see.)

Thanks for listening.

OURS: All righty then, what inspiration (or lack thereof, such as my post above) do all of you wonderful homemakers have for us today? If this is your first time participating, feel free to dig through your archives and enter anything homemaking. Thank you so much for joining us today and I hope you have a great Homemaker Monday!

27 comments:

Wow! this is so sweet from you, and unespected.You know, these days I was thinking to quit all the blogging thing, but maybe I'm changing my mind, thank you Jen, big hug.P.s.: and what a lovely, tiny, molasses' footprints, but I imagine, in that moment you could not appreciate them so much.

I just found your blog the other day and I've decided you must be superwoman! :)

Your post reminds me of a day when my oldest was 3 or 4 and set a cube of soft butter on the carpet at my parents house. He drove thru it with a big wheel. He's 9 now and there's still stains that the carpet cleaning company was never able to get rid of.

I had 3 kids at the time, so I guess I identify with you and the molasses a bit.

But I have to ask, was the few fleeting moments in the bathroom alone worth it? Almost?

Oh, Jen, today I was so happy, first about your post, then about the fact that I commented only once, without forgetting something....but now I come again, and I want you to know that I will copy and paste your post, may be frame it, especially the "she always makes my day with her wit and charm" part ( I think, by now, this is my mission ) thank you again. You made my....let's say.... month? :D

Oh, this was so cute and funny, but only because it didn't happen to me. I imagine you must have just wanted to run away when you saw that. That is a classic photo though with the big pool and little footprints leading away....

you asked, "Do you have any idea how one would clean up mess up such as this?" 'jsangel' was on key with the hot water tip!! VERY HOT water!!!

For some sticky type foods, cold water is actually the ticket. Things such as pans or bowls from oatmeal, or cooked eggs, or mac. & cheese. The cold water puts a stop to their stickyness, hardnening it up and making it much more easiely removeable. In the dishroom up at camp, we'd fill a clearing tub with COLD water and dump bowls from oatmeal in it when they came through the dish room window. We'd do the same after lunches where we served mac. & cheese, etc. Then one swish with a metal scrubbie before racking to put in the dishwasher and all was good. With these type of products, using hot water just worsens/intensifyies the stickieness 8-/

However, for other type of products/substances, HOT water is the trick. Products which are more of a syrupie base. Things such as syrup for pancakes, or molasses, or carmel ice cream topping, etc.. The HOT water cuts through and breaks down the core of the product, thus making it pretty much disenegrate, thus making it (ever so much) easier to clean. HOT water to the point of really feeling it on your hands, or sort of feeling it through rubber gloves. Then use cloth rags, wipe up, rinse (still in hot water) and repeat, and repeat, and repeat ..., or so it would take with a whole bucket of molasses 8-/

Some people (usually of southern originality) like molasses on corn bread. Molasses is a good thing to add to beans, whether baked or fried. And the other ideas for it just left my mind 8-/

How I remember being invaded in the bathroom by little boys!! The bathroom we had when they were those ages, was set up so if you had shut the door, your legs were mere inches from the door, thus brusing you every time someone would shove it open 8-b Now-a-days, if I shove the bathroom door but it doesn't fully click, I'm guarented a visit from Boo while in there, the best way to distract his sniffing is to scratch his back side. The things us moms do o;-p

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I'm a Mormon American, mostly vegetarian housewife raising 10 AWESOME kids, including twin toddlers and a newborn, in a tiny farm town in Mexico. I've reluctantly traveled the survivor road when my first husband, and first love, committed suicide in 2004, leaving me a widow with 6 children. Since then, however, I have found happiness, now that I'm remarried, to my soul mate, and about the smartest man on the planet. He totally supports me and reads my blog everyday, possibly because he knows that every night I'm going to ask him if he did. Follow us as I try to find humor and excitement in the everyday affairs of running a home!